Rodriguez agrees to buyout
Dan Feldman
Daily Sports EditorJuly 13th, 2008
With just three offensive starters returning, redshirt junior running backs Kevin Grady's driving while intoxciated charge, four quarterbacks that have thrown one combined pass at the college level, Michigan football coach Rich Rodriguez's load is still heavy, but it just got a bit lighter.
On Tuesday, Rodriguez settled a lawsuit filed against him after he left the Mountaineers in December to become the Wolverines' coach, agreeing to pay West Virginia University $4 million.
Rodriguez's contract with West Virginia had a buyout clause for that amount, but he contested paying it for nearly six months because he claimed West Virginia didn't meet several promises and that $4 million was unreasonably high.
Rodriguez will pay $1.5 million to West Virginia in three annual payments of $500,000 beginning in January 2010. The Michigan Athletic Department will pay the other $2.5 million in a single payment made by the end of this month and cover Rodriguez's legal fees, according to a statement released by Athletic Director Bill Martin.
"Although he continues to disagree with the validity of the terms, Rich and the rest of us at Michigan felt that it would be best to get this distracting issue behind us," Martin said through the Athletic Department. "This situation is now resolved, and we are ready to move onward to a new era of Michigan football."
West Virginia officials are also glad the lawsuit is settled.
"I'm very pleased that we resolved this matter and wish him the best at the University of Michigan," West Virginia President Mike Garrison said. "And we all move forward."
Others have mixed opinions about the lawsuit being settled.
"I think it's good for both programs," said West Virginia booster Paul Astorg, who expected West Virginia to recover the full $4 million. "Everybody needed to move on." But Astorg said he thought the legal process could reveal other issues.
"I think that lawsuit was going to show some of the deficiencies in the athletic department at West Virginia," Astorg said.
Ken Kendrick, another West Virginia booster and the managing general partner of the Arizona Diamondbacks, has been particularly outspoken about what he describes as West Virginia's "inept, incompetent, political" athletic department.
"Essentially, they are a good-ole-boy network," Kendrick said before the lawsuit was settled. "They don't operate their athletic department in a professional, state-of-the-art way."
West Virginia booster Mike Smith sees another side to the issue, saying a change in Rodriguez sparked the coach's departure.
"Rich has been getting bad advice from his people for the last couple years," Smith said. "His agent (Mike Brown) has really guided him in the wrong direction. Let me tell you something, Rich turned, changed after he won the Sugar Bowl in 2006. He became a different coach."
Rodriguez agreed to terms on a 6-year, $15-million deal with Michigan in December. It includes a similar $4-million buyout that decreases by $500,000 each year.
"It would've been a heck of a lot easier not to go through this," Rodriguez said prior to the settlement.
Printed from www.michigandaily.com on Thu, 18 Mar 2010 00:26:14 -0400